China rolls out supercritical CO2 power plant and submerged AI data center

China has officially put into service the world’s first commercial supercritical carbon‑dioxide power plant, named "Carbon One", at the Shougang Shuicheng steel complex in Guizhou province. The facility now operates two 15 MW units for a total capacity of 30 MW, converting waste heat from steel production into electricity via a compact sCO₂ cycle that offers higher thermal efficiency and reduced emissions. The project was developed by the China National Nuclear Corporation and its nuclear energy institute.

In a separate initiative, China has built an underwater data centre near the Lingang offshore wind farm. The 24 MW facility, costing about 1.6 billion yuan (US$226 million), houses roughly 2,000 servers at a depth of 10 m. By using seawater for cooling and sourcing more than 95 % of its power from renewable offshore wind, the centre achieves a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15, substantially lowering the energy footprint of AI computing workloads.